Chapter six
Intensification
ooOO-OOoo


They walked to the bus-stop next to the Police Department in silence, traffic rushing by. The street-lamps flickered on and the two young men casted shadows on the pavement. Everything was settled for tomorrow night and both were tense. They knew what was at stake and how much could go wrong, but they had to trust in their own and the task force's abilities or they didn't even need to start the operation at all.

It would be one of the more clean 'get in – take the jewel – get out' – heists, as they didn't want to distract the officers with too much traps. Kuroba had been disappointed at first, because it very well could be KID's last heist, but seeing that there wouldn't be an audience anyway, he'd finally given in.

Shinichi had arranged everything concerning the officers with Nakamori. Where they should stand, which traps they had to expect, where most likely Snake and his men would hide. Tomorrow, they would meet again to go over everything one last time. They wanted to be sure that they had eliminated as much risks as possible.

Kuroba had picked him up after the meeting to hear the latest news and now they were on their way home. This time, Shinichi actually was going back to Beika instead of joining the thief back to his house. Kuroba had said he had to sort some things out before tomorrow and Shinichi had understood. Thinking about Ran and his own big secret gave him a pretty good idea about how Kuroba felt. Remembering how Kuroba had spoken about Nakamori Aoko, he was sure whom the thief would pay a visit tonight.

A black car with tinted windows pulled up next to them and made Shinichi jump a bit, but seeing that Kuroba was perfectly calm while the front window was being lowered, he relaxed again. He bent down to glimpse inside the car and recognized the driver.

Yesterday, he finally had met KID's assistant, Kounsuke Jii; an elderly man who held a great loyalty for the Kurobas. He already had been Toichi's stage assistant for his magic shows as well as his helping hand at night. Kuroba wanted that at least one person at the heist knew about Jii (how he insisted Shinichi should call him) and that the assistant on the other hand could rely on Shinichi if need be.

Jii gave him a friendly nod and turned to Kuroba. "Are you ready, Bocchama?"

Kuroba sighed. "I hope so, Jii-chan, I really hope so." He gave Shinichi a sidelong glance. "Are you okay taking the bus or shall we give you a ride?"

Shinichi shook his head. "No no, it's alright. I'll take the bus. Go ahead, Kuroba, I'll see you tomorrow after the meeting."

The thief smiled weakly at him. "Fine, till tomorrow then," he said and got into the car. Shinichi looked after them for a moment before he studied the bus-schedule to find the next connection to Beika. He'd come to be really fond of the magician/thief. Kuroba was ambitious, reliable and easy to get along with. Hopefully, the upcoming conversation with Aoko would turn out alright for him.

ooOO-OOoo

"Well," Ai said while she turned away from Shinichi to enter the results of her tests into her laptop. "I think you should be fine as long as you don't overdo it."

Shinichi gingerly rubbed over the band aid on his arm that covered the tiny red spot where she'd drawn blood from him. He'd come to her before going home to get her all-clear before the heist. After his change from Conan back to Shinichi, he'd developed rather fickle feelings towards needles. On some days he didn't care how often Ai would prick him with the nasty things (really, what was one needle more or less to him?) while on others, he could barely stand their sight. Today it was more of the latter. He blamed it on the stress.

He watched Ai's small form while she was typing. She still hadn't decided to take the antidote and he didn't want to push her, knowing that it would most likely lead to a stubborn reaction. It was her choice, and eventually she would come to terms with it – in whichever form that might be. Until then she would live her life as Haibara Ai, stay with the Professor and go to school with the kids. They were still sad about Conan's departure and having Ai around helped them a great deal to cope with it.

Shinichi would have liked to discuss the upcoming police-operation with her as she always was good for providing a fresh point of view, but he decided against it. The Black Organization was still too present in her mind and he didn't want to upset her. Besides - he wasn't allowed to talk about it anyway. If just everything would go as planned tomorrow.

Noticing his concerned expression, Ai's glance narrowed suspiciously. "You are just attending a usual heist, aren't you?"

Oh my, she just knew him too well sometimes.

"What? Sure I am," he tried to give his voice a convincing tone and quickly got up to prevent any further questions. He reached for his jacket. "I have to go now – it's late. Thanks, Haibara," he waved, glad to get away before she could dig deeper. "Tell the Professor I said hi."

Ai watched him go, knowing that he hadn't told her the truth.

'Funny to suddenly be on the other side of his secretiveness,' she thought. 'Now I understand a bit better how Ran-san must have felt.'

Heaving a sigh, she turned back to her laptop. She wasn't his babysitter and he had a head with a brain on his shoulders. Her fingers stopped typing and hovered over the keys. Said brain had gotten him into trouble more than once.

'You'll be fine – right, Kudou-kun?'

ooOO-OOoo

"Tadaima," Shinichi called tiredly as he entered the house and kicked off his shoes so they landed in a corner. On second thought he picked them up and placed them neatly side by side. He didn't need trouble with his mother right now; the day at the Police Department had been exhausting enough. As soon as the morning newspaper with the heist-note had been out, reporters had tried to swarm the building Nakamori's division was situated in. As always they wanted to know if the Inspector already had any clues about when and where KID would appear. It had been a mad-house.

Officers had fended off anyone who tried to sneak in – and the reporters where quite creative, Shinichi had to give them that much. Nonetheless, they had been annoying, and working concentrated had been almost impossible. He was just glad they had decided to publish the note only one day before the heist or they'd had to deal with this even longer.

As an advantage of a staged heist, Nakamori hadn't actually to decipher the note this time, as he already knew the location, time and target. Then Hakuba had shown up and Nakamori had a hard time explaining him why he wasn't allowed to participate while Shinichi was obviously involved. In the end, he had made good use of his wide range of vocabulary and yelled at the bright-haired teen that he would bite his head off if he dared to show his face anywhere near the heist-site. If looks could kill, Shinichi would have dropped dead on the spot.

Now, all Shinichi wanted was something for dinner, his bed and maybe reading a few pages in the new mystery-book he'd bought on his way back. Slipping into his house-shoes, he shuffled into the kitchen to look if his mother had any leftovers in the fridge. She had stopped to expect him back for dinner since most of the time he ate with Kuroba and got home late. Rummaging through the boxes, he found some rice and chicken and heated them up in the microwave.

Leaning against the kitchen-counter and waiting for the 'ping', he realized that no one had answered his earlier greeting. That his father was nowhere to be seen wasn't surprising – he was working on a new novel for his 'Night Baron' series and locked himself in to write frequently. Now that Beika was known as his usual place of residence, his editors had it much easier to get a hold on him, what put a lot more working load on Yusaku.

What was strange was that his mother hadn't given him a cheerful 'tadaima' and her usual hugging-assault. Since his parents had decided to move back to Beika, Yukiko had taken on the role of the perfect mother, what included a habit of being there when he got home, and if she went out there would be a note left for him. On bills, post-it's, even as frosting on his favorite lemon-pie. It seemed she wanted to make up for the lost time when she'd been away from her son and as long as she didn't go overboard, he would let her do as she liked.

Confused, he glanced outside. It had started to rain, but he could see the car parked in the driveway and the lights in the house had been on when he got here.

Deciding that most probably she was just busy somewhere in the house, he got some chopsticks out of a drawer and took his now hot meal over to the table. Ready to dig in, his glance fell on the newspaper. The page with KID's announcement was on top and heavily crinkled. Huh.

His parents, especially his father, were very tidy and usually the newspaper would be in the rack when all were finished reading it. And it certainly never looked that abused. Confused he got up and went into the living room. A pillow lay carelessly discarded on the ground next to the closed door to the hallway that led to the library and his father's bureau. It was like following breadcrumbs.

He opened the door, crossed the hallway – and came to a dead stop.

He had seen his mother angry more often than he could count – she was a passionate woman, but this was the first time he actually felt like turning on his heel and fleeing would be a very wise decision. Her rage was literally fuming around her.

She sat in front of his father's bureau with crossed arms and legs and her expression was settled between 'I will camp out in front of your damn door until you get the hell out of there.' and 'Talk to me and you will die a slow painful death.' When she heard Shinichi nearing, her eyes threw daggers at him. Very sharp and pointy daggers.

"You-" Her breathing was heavy and she obviously had a hard time controlling her temper. Instinctively he took a step back. His voice came out high and small after the words had made it around the lump in his throat. "Kaa-san?"

That was enough to let her erupt. "What is going on in that supposedly genius mind of yours?" she yelled and got up with spring-like speed, jabbing her finger on his chest, sending him back against the next wall.

"Getting mixed up in something dangerous? Planning something stupid that will most probably get you in deep trouble again? Not telling me anything?" By now her voice was high-pitched, but it wasn't what made Shinichi wince. She was right and guilt turned his stomach.

He tried to form a reasonable sentence to justify what he did and to reassure her that everything was fine, but his brain refused to function properly. There was nothing he could say to her to justify anything. He had known that his father hadn't told her everything, but he'd chosen to keep it that way because he had been afraid that she would forbid him to help Kuroba. And he couldn't assure her everything would be fine, because he simply didn't know himself.

While he feverishly thought about a way to sooth his mother, the door next to them opened. The silent sound was enough to let Yukiko's head snap around. She backed away from Shinichi to direct her fury at her husband, who anxiously stood on the threshold. A rare sight only Yukiko could elicit.

"And you – you knew about it all along! How could you keep something that important from me?" she shouted, hands on her hips. "Are you two totally insane?"

Yusaku took a step towards his trembling wife. "Yukiko, I'm sorry," he said calmly and put his hands gently on her shoulders. As if he'd flipped a switch, she immediately leaned into him - her anger gone as fast as it had boiled up.

"What if we hadn't talked about KID's heist and you hadn't let slip that Shinichi is working with him?" she almost sobbed, while Shinichi raised a brow at his father. 'You've let something slip?' Yusaku answered just as wordlessly with an apologetic shrug. 'I hadn't had my coffee and the day had been long.'

"What if he'd gone to the heist and something happened to him? I wouldn't even have known that he'd been in danger." Now she really was crying and both men cringed. They were used to a happy, energetic or sometimes angry Yukiko, but to see her cry set them on the edge. Yusaku rubbed her back in comforting circles.

"Shinichi was so silent, lying on that hospital bed, his face so pale against the white sheets – it's still haunting me in my nightmares," came her muffled voice from where her face was pressed against his shirt. "I don't want to relive this horror."

Yusaku tightened his hold on her. "You won't have to, my heart." He gave his son a stern look over her shaking shoulder. "He's not going to attend the heist."

Shinichi gulped. How would he explain that to Kuroba and Nakamori?

But one look in his mother's red-rimmed, pleading eyes as she turned to him melted away any resistance. How could he be so cruel to make her worry over him like that again? He was ashamed that his first thought had been about the heist and not his mother's well-being. He had known that she'd been shaken from what had happened, but that it was that bad… Suddenly he saw her whole behavior in a different light. It wasn't just guilt that she had left him behind; it also was fear to lose him – not to be there when he needed her.

"It's alright, Kaa-san. I'm just wrapping everything up with Nakamori tomorrow morning and then I'll be home. I promise."

A cautious smile lightened up her face as she reached for him to pull him into a tight embrace.

"Thank you, Shinichi," she whispered.

ooOO-OOoo

Kaito stood in front of Aoko's house. The rain had sleeked his hair around his face and he was drenched to the bone. He just couldn't' bring his body to take the last few steps up to the shelter of the front door.

Aoko's father was still at the Police Department; for sure he would be home late today – again. Kaito's heart was heavy in his chest, knowing that it was his fault that Aoko had to spend so many nights alone while her father was out to chase after her best friend. What kind of 'best friend' was he when he was causing her so much sadness? The worst kind – that was what he was and he wanted to change that.

He was fully aware that tomorrow night could end badly for him. He could be arrested – he could die. If either of this would happen, his secret would be out and he didn't want Aoko to learn about it that way.

He'd written a letter for her in which he explained everything – just in case he didn't make it back. About his father's death, why he'd started being KID and about what would happen tomorrow. He would ask her not to read it before the heist had ended and he knew she would do so. She always listened when he spoke to her in all earnest.

He didn't want to beg for her love or to put any pressure on her. If she decided that she could be his friend after she'd read everything, he would be happy – it was all he dared to ask for now.

Yes, she would know about Kaito being KID tomorrow night, even if the heist was a success, and he'd made his peace with that. It was time to come clean with her. Spending time with Shinichi and listening to him when he was on the phone with Ran had shown him what could be if he just gave Aoko the chance to really see him. Without a smiling mask and without hiding behind childish pranks.

His fingers tightened around the envelope in his pocket, crinkling the paper as he gathered his courage. He pulled it out and smoothed out the creases carefully – shielding it from the rain so the water wouldn't smudge the ink.

Suddenly a sharp pain exploded on the back of his head.

The world turned upside down.

Wet pavement under his hands - scraping against his cheek.

Then just darkness.

The two men who pulled the unconscious boy into a waiting car didn't notice the small white envelope that had dropped out of his slack fingers into the drain.

Slowly the rising water tugged at it, played with it - washed it away.


A/N: Things are heating up. 'About damn time after six chapters!' – I can practically hear your shouting XD
Yes – I took my sweet-time to develop everything up to this point, but be assured that now I'll pick up the pace.